Supercomputer will aid farmers, says minister

GURDASPUR/PATHANKOT: Expressing concern over drastic changes in the weather patterns in the country which have been leading to crop losses and giving rise to food inflation, Union minister of state for planning, science and technology and parliamentary affairs Ashwani Kumar said Centre had decided to import a state-of-the-art supercomputer, which would make predictions about future climatic conditions to alert farmers so they could take safety measures in advance and tell fishermen to avoid venturing into sea.
Kumar visited Tarn Taran district on Thursday and reached Jugial and Shahpur Kandi in Gurdaspur district on Friday.
He said leading companies would be roped in to send SMSes to farmers about the upcoming weather “Initially, five lakh farmers and 20,000 fishermen will benefit from the scheme but after five years, five crore farmers and 40,000 fishermen will be covered by it,” added Kumar.